Day 2- At Sea

I definitely don’t have my sea legs yet. 

We started the morning out with breakfast in the Windjammer Café, one of the highest points of the ship. I was wobbling around like I was drunk! I had hoped that it was just because of the height and the wind/speed of the ship, but as we walked back to our room to prep for Maureen’s first speech, I nearly ran into about 4 walls. I’m hoping this wobbliness wears off soon, and I’m oddly concerned that if I go running today on the treadmill that I will fall off.

Maureen’s first presentation was today at 9am hosted in a bar area, since the theaters are all reserved for these big, all-controlling tour groups. Her topic was on the real pirates of the Caribbean, and how the Hollywoodization of pirates really glamorized the “profession.”

My friend is a genius.

She had about 25 people attend the speech, and about half of them come up to her after the speech to ask questions. As I sat in the audience, learning, I noticed most of the people watching the lecture were looking at their daily schedule, looking for her next speech. YAY MAUREEN!

I got to relax in the sun for a bit while Maureen worked on her afternoon lecture. You would think by now that I would remember how I fry in the sun and that I would use something higher than 30 SPF. I’m a little pink, nothing too bad, but I can see it getting much worse very quickly. 

After lunch, Maureen and I met up on the pool deck to watch the Sexiest Man Alive contest. Yup. We’ll just leave it at that, because I don’t want to drool and ruin my laptop. 

3:20 pm: I made it to the gym… biked for 20 minutes, ran for 10. While biking the “cascades” preset, I could feel the ship going up and down. It was like I was really biking with hills and stomach drops. Then, the running… I figured there were some people running at a good clip, I could totally handle it. I would run for a minute, hit the side of the treadmill (because the ship/ I was listing to the side), then walk it out for a minute or so. When I felt like I could get my bearings again, I would try running again. Once again, I would hit the side of the treadmill and walk again. So, running was a fail. But hey, I stuck it out. If I can get my butt out of bed tomorrow morning, I may try the 8am spin class. Then again… I may just sleep. 

4:45pm- Maureen lectures again, this time on the religious culture of St. Kitts. Apparently an entire settlement of Jewish descendants disappeared. Maureen has developed quite a following- this lecture was busier than the other. The activities director put Maureen’s speech in the Schooner Bar, which is a nice little piano bar that is right outside of one of the main dining halls. This room is not designed for lectures- Maureen used a piano as a podium, and her Powerpoint was viewed on a small flat-screen tv. To top it off, tonight was a formal dinner, so people were coming around early to get their picture taken. This created a LOT of noise for Maureen to overcome. Then there was the staff member wheeling around a cart of wine, hitting every bump possible. It was so loud, she had to stop speaking and wait for the staff member to pass. Then, the blenders started up to make frozen drinks. Despite the noise and the less-than-ideal location, her lecture was great and many audience members told her that she did an outstanding job, “despite the noise.”

8:30pm- Formal dinner, night one of two. Maureen and I were pleasantly surprised to see that we finally had dining companions! It was an extended family on vacation- there were 7 people seated with us. The group, however, was not extremely talkative except for among each other. One of our tablemates recognized Maureen from the lectures and they talked briefly about the lectures (“They were really good! I went to both!” ), where they were from, then it was game over. Maureen and I made chit chat, people-watched (my favorites were the kids who were trying to act all grown up in their dress clothes and the teenage boys who obviously weren’t happy to be in a suit), and enjoyed dinner. 

There was an announcement on the ship earlier today, telling us to set our clocks back *tonight* due to the time change. When we return to Florida, we’ll be on the same schedule as everyone else, but tonight, we lose the hour of sleep. BOO. 

Today’s fanny pack count: 5. On a BOAT.